Saturday, February 20, 2010

Go Dog Go and others...



Go Dog Go
by P.D. Eastman (of the Dr. Seuss family of books) was one of my husband's favorite childhood books. And if you've ever met me, you know that resurrecting childhood memories/toys/books is what I'm all about.
Because of this we got a shiny new hardcover version of the book for one of my baby showers from my mother-in-law. I was beyond thrilled...however...paper pages were not our friend (until recently) and the book is about 50 pages (believe it). So we were thrilled when Uncle Evan and Aunt Marcy gave D the board book version for Christmas (apparently it was one of Evan's favorite books as a kid too!). This shortened version is a favorite of D's - and BETTER, in my humble opinion, than the long version. The long version has no real story, no cohesiveness, it's random, non-rhyming and has no iambic pentameter like other Dr. Seuss books (my mother the English teacher is loving that I just said that - however she's hating my punctuation and run-on sentences). However Dain still loves/loved the long version - and D seems to love it too.
Both versions are now in rotation for our nighttime/naptime books. We hit one or the other several times a week. Thursday night was one of them. The minute I closed the book after finishing, I hear sleepy D make noises that sound like "dog go". I immediately sat up a bit and tested him, saying it to him - and sure enough he said "go dog go". I was thrilled, but thought it was a fluke so I didn't mention it to Dain.
Friday mornings I take D to the babysitter's house after Dain leaves. I was getting D rallied and said "let's go", and he quickly replied "go". I tested it again - and said "go dog go" and he immediately smiled and said "dog go". For the first 5-10 minutes of our car ride, he repeated it over and over and over. I immediately called Dain to report it. Officially the cutest thing ever.


In other news we got yet another book I love. I had a credit at Borders so D and I headed over today with the plan of buying yet another of the "How Do Dinosaurs..." books as he loves them so much and has perfected his dinosaur roar. However after we looked through all the books and board books, it seemed D was too tired to stay. But we suddenly found a book he couldn't stop looking at - and that I flipped through and realized the story was one of the best I've read.
It's a mom and dad "fish" (all the illustrations are painted stones - amazing) passing on their "wisdom" to their young child fish - including important things like not having to follow the crowd, appreciating art everywhere, and making the world a better place. Apparently people give this as a graduation gift, and I understand why in the "Oh the Places You'll Go" type way. I'm hoping this rubs off on D. I love it - and he loves it so-far.
Man - we're going to have a to get MAJOR bookshelves - I have a list about a mile long of books that I want D to always have access to...

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